Search for Lost Birds / 3 Sep 2026 / Mindoro Bleeding-heart
Researchers in the Philippines have captured photographs of the Mindoro Bleeding-heart, a beautiful and Critically Endangered species of ground-dwelling pigeon found only on the Philippine island of Mindoro. In August 2026, a single bleeding-heart was documented on a camera trap as part of a project led by the Center for Conservation Innovations (CCIPH) in collaboration with the indigenous Iraya Mangyan communities on Mindoro.
You can read the full story of the incredible rediscovery on the CCIPH website: A Heart That Still Beats: The Rediscovery of Mindoro’s Rarest Bird.
Prior to this, the last definite documented record of a Mindoro Bleeding-heart was a series of photographs of an individual captured near Sablayan Prison in December 2005. A possible sound recording from 2016 could be a bleeding-heart, but the identification remains uncertain and difficult to prove in the absence of any known recordings of the species.
The Mindoro Bleeding-heart was once a common species in Mindoro’s lowland forests but in the past century most of the bird’s lowland forest habitat has been cleared. Records of the bleeding-heart declined precipitously in second half of twentieth century before stopping entirely after 2005. In interviews, local people often reported that they had not seen the species in years. For many in the conservation world, hope for the bird was running out.
The new photographs provide a burst of optimism and confirm that the Mindoro Bleeding-heart still holds on. Now comes the challenge of how to conserve this newly-found species. As the rediscovery team describe, a top priority will be protecting and restoring the forest where the bird was found, something that will only be possible through continued collaboration between scientists and indigenous communities.
From a Search for Lost Birds perspective, the Mindoro Bleeding-heart is the just third Critically Endangered lost bird to be rediscovered since 2022 (the others are Black-naped Pheasant-pigeon and Santa Marta Sabrewing), a fact that highlights just how spectacular this recent rediscovery is. Could some of the other Critically Endangered species on the lost birds list also be out there waiting to be rediscovered? We certainly hope so.